Today’s post continues the introduction of our Leader Intuit Framework. I’ll show how being in an empowered state strengthens intuition. Conversely, intuition nurtures our empowered self by opening new doors to more choice in life.

Intuition is the source of scientific knowledge. —Aristotle

We all know that knowledge is power and knowing and learning to trust our power increases our ability to manage the unknown. Empowerment is to believe in oneself. It fills us with a sense of trust in ourselves and in our decisions as a leader.

There is a challenge, though, of fully engaging an intuitive life. The ebb and flow of real life has ups and downs and I’d mainly been riding the crest of the wave. I’m finding it tough as I bump up against life’s icky challenges and get stuck in fear and in the muck. It’s so much easier to access my intuition when I’m on top of the world.

How can intuition serve us by helping us navigate through times of turmoil? Isn’t that when we need intuition the most?

Raising my intuition to a new level as a firefighter

I’ve become curious about how people tap into their intuition and thrive in moments of high emotional intensity. How do firefighters, for instance, problem solve quickly when responding to a life threatening situation?

I want to be a fire fighter and respond and thrive in moments of intensity. I am definitely on a course right now to learn and will share with you my training as firefighter of my own burning house of emotions around cancer.

Last week, I shared with you the shock of a diagnosis of skin cancer. At this point, I don’t know if it is easily curable cancer or not. I’m waiting for the final pathology report to get a clearer picture of the outcome. As many would attest, the unknown and waiting part is most difficult.

The question that I now pose to myself is how can intuition help me navigate through a stressful health crisis? How can my intuition support me to stay empowered?

The past week I’ve practiced grounding myself and applying muscle testing to my intuition. Neuro-linguisitic programming teaches that we have congruent signals also called biofeedback. When I’m totally present in my body by practicing yoga, I can feel strong yes and no feedback in my body. I am particularly aware that the right side of my body is more attuned to muscle testing which is a medium for biofeedback.

I believe that we can all extend our energy fields through those signals to the universal energy field or oneness, as I call it. Our sense of oneness of all living matter is clearly an important component of being a Leader Intuit and you will find more about this topic in this blog.

Reframing and giving voice and energy to a desired outcome

Knowing whether my cancer is melanoma or squamish cancer cells (easier to cure) is up in the air right now. At my last visit with my doctor, she kept on referring to melanoma and I asked her to reframe her comments in a more positive light. I find that I must battle, in this state of not knowing, my tendency to imagine “what if” worst case scenarios. She agreed and I felt empowered.

Connecting to our body with increased presence using therapeutic yoga

Empowerment is like a zoom lens. I don’t want you to look outwards with the empowerment lens, but rather zoom inwards into every cell of your body where you have embodied moments of success.

In the past couple of months, I’ve learned about the benefit of being fully present in my body using the ritual of therapeutic yoga with Jessica (link here). It allows me to tap into intuition and, if I miss my daily ritual of yoga, I feel my empowerment as an intuitive leader slide.

How to build more empowerment in your life

Here’s a list of traits I feel empower the intuitive leader. But of course, these traits are not exclusive to any of the four lenses of intuition; they can be used interchangeably.

To solve problems in a spiritual sense is to find solutions which focus on the greater good by understanding what else, e.g. community, faith, religion, life purpose, has an impact on the decision making process, and how emotions impact decision making.

Innovating

To innovate is to transform creative ideas into something new or different which can make a positive change for others, and that further fulfills our purpose in life. Creativity is the capability or act of conceiving something original or unusual. The innovation process starts as a creative abrasion of competing ideas followed by experimentation to validate ideas through feedback, and is completed with resolution — the final step to reach collective genius.

A heightened state of oneness (“one love,” as Bob Marley would say) awakens the power of inclusiveness, tolerance and a sense of belonging in our hearts. When we are open to it, we become interconnected in the most powerful energy of unconditional love, transcendence, spiritual enlightenment, and union with the divine or Source (however you define it).

Most people are considered to be asleep to reality even as they go about their daily business. “Waking sleep,” is an idea gleaned in part from ancient spirituality. To live with a heightened state of oneness is to be able to connect to a higher state of consciousness, e.g. pure consciousness, cosmic consciousness, unity or other states of trance, at will. It is to persistently try to improve yourself, to pursue personally relevant and meaningful goals that lead to a rich and enjoyable life of unconditional love, to achieve self-actualization.

We are beings with energy fields. Chakras are psycho-spiritual centers in our energy channel and are characteristic of Eastern medicine practiced in India and China for 10,000 years. Chakras connect to our emotional self-awareness. This includes the ability to differentiate between subtleties in our own emotions while understanding their cause and the impact they have on our thoughts and actions and those of others.

More and more, I’m realizing how empowerment flows by trusting my intuition. And here’s the interesting twist: When you are empowered, you trust yourself – your intuition, and in turn, as you grow trust and confidence, you become more empowered. It’s a feedback loop, an infinite cycle of ebb and flow.

In fact, this looping also happens with the lenses of purpose, cooperation and courage. Next week I’ll talk about how when you’re in purpose – when you’re in the right place at the right time – you can grow your intuition.

Like this:

Today’s post continues the introduction of our Leader Intuit Framework. I’ll be connecting the dots between one of the core leadership lenses, cooperation, and how you can strengthen your intuitive leadership.

I see cooperation as a wide angle lens. Valerie V. Hunt wrote a book 20 years ago called Infinite Mind: Science of Human Vibrations of Consciousness, where she explores the idea that everyone is connected by a large ‘web’ of energy and as you connect to it, you increase your ability to tap into that network. Well, doesn’t a fine tuned network perfectly describe cooperation?

Cooperation leads to more intuition. It’s a massive net that can be cast to connect us to the larger universe beyond ourselves. I’ve previously explored several aspects of the powerful lens of cooperation, however, it’s the first time that I’m including it as one of four leadership lenses. When we hone these skills, we can access that intuitive or spiritual net that interconnects us.

Cooperation allows us to have each others backs and compete with only ourselves. “Ifyou’realwaysinahurry,alwaystryingtogetaheadoftheotherguy,orsomeoneelse’sperformanceiswhatmotivatesyou,thenthatpersonisincontrolofyou.” ~WayneDyer

What are the four leadership competencies of cooperation in the Leaders Intuit Model? They are the filters through which we connect to that bigger web of connectivity and intuition. Keep in mind that they are not exclusive to any one leadership lens and can be used interchangeably.

To embrace diversity means to delve into our inner selves and realize our capacity to value other people for their differences, not despite them. We cultivate an openness to respect beliefs that we may not share on religion, spirituality, politics, culture, or other belief systems. Our capacity to embrace diversity affects the essence of our being, human spirit or soul as opposed to the material or physical.

To ‘be in the flow’ is to naturally connect to a continuous, fluid, wavelike, oscillating movement of life. When our “home frequency” is fully congruent with our environment, behaviors, capabilities, beliefs and values, identity and purpose in life, we feel energized focus, engagement and joy. We live accordingly in calm, peace, unity or any other high frequency wave lengths of emotions in the conscious and unconscious fields of universal energy.

Compassion is an expression of our human capacity to care for each other. It embodies the action-oriented qualities of spiritual intelligence. Compassion moves us forward by liberating us from the thoughts and feelings that may glue us to the unresolved issues deep inside us.

Gratitude enables us to create a resourceful state of confidence when overcoming our fears. The greatest time of personal growth is when we are dealing with the unknown and stretching our capacity to achieve what seems to be impossible. A catalyst for this change is the gratitude for and celebration of how much we have already accomplished. Walk the edge of life by embracing with gratitude the perfection of our imperfection – we are all doing our best!

Cooperation is a very wide lens which connects us to the world and experiences of others. With leadership styles moving away from authoritarian models to more team-focused and collaborative ones, now is the time to begin working on your cooperation skills. As you hone your sense of gratitude, compassion, flow and appreciation for diverse experiences, you’ll become a more cooperative leader in your field.

Tap into your intuition as you tap into all the talent and constructive energy around you. The world is a place of building ideas, and we’re stronger when we build in connection with one another.

Next week we’ll look at the leadership lens of the Leaders Intuit Framework: Purpose. You’ll learn how being in purpose will naturally bring you to the right place at the right time.